Taken from " Welding Principles and Applications 3rd Edition by Larry Jeffus" Chapter 28 on page 632......
"Soldering and brazing are both classified by the American Welding Society as 'liquid-solid phase bonding processes'." The rest of the para basically says " the base parts are NOT melted as they are in welding".
Next paragraph says.....
"Soldering and brazing differ only in that soldering takes place at a temperature below 840 deg F ( 450 deg C ) and brazing occurs at a temperature above 840 deg F ( 450 deg C ).
This is the textbook that I used with the 1 semester 'Basic Welding' class I took at the local Jr. college.
Sooooo, I'll stand by my statement " Steel cannot be soldered".
Soldering is indeed a liquid-solid process, and the base materials are indeed not melted as in welding.
Be a good boy and cite the section of your text where it says "Steel cannot be soldered". G'head, we'll wait while you re-read the entire text to no avail.
How many pictures of soldered steel joints do you need to see before you understand why you got a "D" in that welding course ? Cheers, Fred McClellan The House Of Balsa Dust home.mindspring.com/~the-plumber
Your table of temperatures that differentiate between soldering and brazing does not support your conclusion.
All it says is that steel is not usable as a solder, not that it cannot be soldered.
From a train site:
"If you are soldering steel rails, you should make some provision to be able to clean your rails with really clean hot water after soldering. The fluxes that work best with steel are somewhat corrosive and will cause your rail to rust over time unless it is rinsed off.
"I have soldered Gargraves stainless steel rail using this method to attach wiring to it. Stainless requires an extreme amount of heat for any amount of success so unless you have all day to play and a lot of patience, don't attempt it. I did not enjoy doing it and would not have tried it if my tracks had been removable."
Here's what the text means: "'liquid-solid phase bonding processes'.": means solder is in its liquid phase (melted) during the bonding process, and the base material remains in its solid phase (unmelted).
"Soldering and brazing differ only in that soldering takes place at a
means solder material melts at temperature below 840 deg F; and brazing material melts at temperature above 840 deg F. Thus, the text does recognize that steel can be soldered and can be brazed. I would hope so; people do it all the time.
The essentials for sodering are cleanliness and sufficient heat.
A suitable flux is also a good idea.
For stainless steel, a phosphoric acid based flux works better than the usual hydrochloric acid "killed spirits" type. The flux in "resin core" is virtually useless for soldering stainless steel components.
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